As much as I love hitting the open road on a beautiful California spring Wednesday morning on a trip to Hollywood, I equally hate the drive back the next day, or at night when I’m haggard and barely functioning from the night before. There are many forces at work against one, that is, should one decide to make a road trip – the main obstacle of course, being money. Nevertheless, Megadeth, Testament and Exodus skipping the Bay Area aren’t going to prevent this metal-head from seeing one of the most legendary line-ups ever! I set sail from my abode in Berkeley in hopes that I could get my ass to Hollywood by 6pm. I almost did…

I knew this was going to be an interesting trip from the get-go when, after making a pit stop at a gas station somewhere near Gilroy, some random lady drives up and asks me for some gas money. Who the hell walks up to a guy wearing a shirt that says “Prey for Death” (Warbringer) on it and asks for money? Anyways, this lady seemed to be genuinely broke and I hooked her up with a few gallons of gas, even though she lives in Los Gatos and never heard of the city of BERKELEY before. “Oh is that where that big fancy school is?” [facepalm]

No need to thank me, just pay it forward…

Like I said before, the open road during this time of year along highway 101 really is quite remarkable. I’ve driven this road more times than I would like to admit, but when you’re away for awhile and come back you appreciate it even more. Of course, 7 hours into the trip…

“Welcome to Hollywood! On your right you’ll see our most famous landmark: a shit-load of traffic.”

Luckily, I didn’t need to take any of the crowded exits. The Palladium is right off of Vine St. exit, which is awesome because driving through Hollywood can take forever. Speaking of forever: the line to get into the venue stretched almost completely around an entire city block. The picture below is probably 1/4 of the line, you can make out the famous “Hollywood” hill sign on the right. Long lines = I’ll be across the street at the bar.

So what’s my reward for hauling my ass several hundred miles to see this show? That’s right: Live fuckin’ DVD filming. I called Chris Broderick to see if he was around, but no dice.

I was about an hour late, which seems to be a pretty typical start time for myself. I didn’t capture any videos of Exodus because I already have quite a few YouTube videos of them, but I fired off this picture really quick during Toxic Waltz.

Testament were up next. They played the entire Legacy album, with a few songs like DNR and I think a song or two from Low thrown in at the end for good measure. Glen Drover filled-in for Alex Skolnick on guitar. He did okay, he wasn’t spectacular, but I guess he did the job. I snapped a few photos, this one being the most green.

And video, of course!

After Testament’s set I went to refresh my thirst palette with SoCal Carl, my partner in crime for the night. Whilst at the bar, some lovely ladies behind me started staring and pointing at me, like most usually do (no, not really), and shout out “Hey nice shirt!” After a few minutes of chit-chat, wouldn’t you know that we were talking with two ladies from the Iron Maidens? One of whom happens to be dating Warbringer vocalist John Kevill. SoCal Carl put on his best smile (which wasn’t hard to do) and posed for a shot with them:

Believe it or not, this was my first time seeing Megadeth. I’m happy to say that people went bat-shit crazy when they came on! I guess it’s not that surprising because they did nothing less than supremely rule the stage.  Maybe it was the extra energy from the DVD filming, but there was something electric going on that night. My bootlegs don’t really do them justice.

On the way out of the venue there was a Silver Surfer spotting! If you’ve ever been to a metal show in Hollywood, you know who he is – he’s the only guy with the gigantic grey mullet.

The Grill’Em All Truck wasn’t around back when I lived in the area, so it’s kind of weird to me how popular it has become, considering it’s just a truck that serves sandwiches. Darn good marketing idea though!

Tickets were all sold-out, but scalpers (selling them for twice as much as what I payed at the box office) had plenty to go around. Funny how that works…

Shouldn’t that say “Metallica”? I kid, I kid. I’ll save that fight for another day…